New digital information standards could cut medication errors when people go into or are discharged from hospital in England by nearly 40%, say researchers.

And while a healthcare professional, usually a pharmacist, would still be needed to do medicines reconciliation, better information sharing could speed up the process, the researchers said.

Analysis by a team at the University of Manchester found that medication errors would be cut from 1.8 million to 1.1 million (39%) by the easier sharing of information across hospital and GP systems.

They also calculated that there could be around 12,000 fewer people experiencing harm from their medicines, with 14,000 fewer days spent in hospital at a saving to the NHS of £6.6m.

New standards around sharing medicines and allergy information were first introduced in 2021, with NHS organisations having to become compliant by this year.

The researchers said that these standards should make medicines reconciliation easier and quicker so more patients can have their medicines checked properly, they added.

The study, which was commissioned by NHS England, looked at published research on medication errors in the UK as well as evidence from other countries where similar changes to digital information standards have been made.

Overall, the researchers estimated that around 31,000 people experience harm from a transition medication error, with over half of these happening to mistakes made at hospital admission.

They also estimated that such errors lead to 45 deaths a year, 20 of which could be prevented when the standards are introduced.

This is not just a UK issue, the researchers said. Errors relating to medications being missed off the list, extra medications added, or wrong doses written down are so common worldwide that the World Health Organization has made it a priority for health services to find ways to reduce them.

Speaking with our sister title Pulse, study lead Professor Rachel Elliott, professor of health economics said the standards were being rolled out this year but it was a very complex process with lots of different stakeholders.

‘Medicines reconciliation done at admission and discharge has been shown to reduce medication errors. This is not about replacing that process but it is about making it easier to access the information which at the moment is all over the place and all the different systems can’t talk to each other.

‘It is enabling the human element to be done more quickly.’

She also said it should save time and hassle for the clinician doing the reconciliation, who might not get a discharge letter very quickly, as well as for the patient who might be unsure about what has been changed or what medicines they have been put on.

‘Some of the prescribing that GPs do is hospital led. What you really want is to just go into the system and that information is already there. That it is instantaneous.’

A version of this article first appeared on our sister publication Pulse.